Snapchat falters on security again, experts say

Snapchat has demonstrated again its lack of understanding in building strong security to protect users of its popular mobile app for sharing photos.

While security will slowdown the app development process, "it's extremely necessary," Hickson said.

Hickson's work follows on the heels of another incident in which hackers exploited a weakness in Snapchat's feature for finding friends by displaying the usernames of people whose phone numbers match those in other users' address books. Hackers used the vulnerability to steal the usernames and phone numbers of more than 4 million users.

Snapchat updated the app to let users opt out of having their phone numbers linked to their usernames. In addition, people are now required to verify their phone number before using the service called "Find Friends."